Rubber-spreading machine



April 1 E. J. HOOPER 1,709,266

RUBBER SPREADING MACHINE Filed April 16, 1927 llll' uuw.

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IIIJIHEHUIEIIDI flcroz-M a Patented Apr. 16, 1929.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

Application filed April 16, 1927. Serial No. 184,275.

My invention relates to machines for coating fabric with rubber and the like. In machines of this character usually the uncoated textile or other fabric to be coated is led from a supply roll to and over a spreader roll and under a spreader knife by which a mass of rubber or the like softened with naptha is held and distributed as a thin coating over the fabric.

The coated fabric is then led by rolls over a horizontal set or grid of steam pipes, by which the rubber coating is dried. The coated and dried fabric is then wound upon a roll for handling and distribution.

In rubber spreading machines of this character as usually arranged, the uncoated fabric is usually led upward from the supply roll to the spreader roll and knife, so that the softened rubber mass placed before the knife, can be deposited on the inclined fabric oulv in limited quantities. As a result the rubber mass has to be renewed frequently before the fabric roll is entirely coated, such renewals tendingto make an uneven coating at the place of renewal.

Further the fabric after coating is usually led horizontally over a long span before being brought over the steam drying pipes, over which it is usually led with the freshly coated side upward so that the drying heat has to penetrate the fabric before reaching the coating. This arrangement results in a machine which takes up a great deal of floor space, and also in the fabric having a tendency to stretch and travel unevenly over the guide rolls to the wind-up roll, so that the coated fabric is often distorted;

My invention has for its object to obviate these and other objections usually present in existing machines, and provide a machine which is very compact in arrangement, in

which the rubber mass does not have to be replenished during the coating of one roll of fabric, in which the distances between the spreader roll and knife, the drying pipes and the wind-up roll are greatly reduced, in which the coated side of the fabric faces the steam pipes during the drying process, and in which many other advantages hereinafter enumerated are attained.

In order that my invention may be fully understood, I shall first describe in detail'one mode in which I at present prefer to carry the invention into practice and then particularly point out the various features of the invention in the claim.

Reference is to be had to the accompanymg drawings forming part of this application, in which like parts are designated by the same numbers in all the figures.

Figure 1 is a side elevation illustrating the operation of a rubber spreading machine embodying my invention.

Figure 2 is a plan view of the same.

Figure 3 is a sectional plan view of the same on the line -33, Figure 1.

In the embodiment trated in the drawings, I mount the braked fabric supply roll 4 on one end of the top of an elevated rectangular frame, section 5.

From the supply roll 4, the uncoated fabric 6 is led over a positivel driven spreader roll 7 on the opposite end 0 the top of said frame section 5, where the fabric passes beneath an adjustable spreader knife 8. The spreader knife-8 is arranged at an obtuse angleto the approaching fabric 6, with which it, therefore, forms a sort'of pocket, 9, in which the mass 10 of softened rubber or a like material is held and can be deposited and retained in quantity sufficient to coat an entire roll of fabric without replenishing and the disadvantages resulting therefrom before mentione From the spreader knife and roll the fabric thus coated is led vertically downward to and under an idler roll 11 journaled in the bottom of the frame section 5 beneath the spreader roll, and from the idler roll the fabricis led horizontally with its coated face downward over the horizontal grid or set of steam drying pipes 12 to and under the positively driven roll 13 at the end of the drying pipes, to the frictionally driven wind-up roll 14, mounted like the drier roll 13 on a low horizontal extension 15 of the frame section 5.

By this arrangement of the fabric rolls and drying pipes, a very compact machine is secured, as the described facing of the drying pipes by the coated side of the fabric hastens the drying process greatly and permits of a much shorter span between the drier rolls 11 and 13, so that the usual tendency of the coated fabric to stretch and Wind unevenly is entirely obviated. I

Further, owing to the vertical travel of the coated fabric from the spreader roll to the drier roll 11, the machine is greatly shortened and its necessary floor space greatly reduced.

Again it will be seen that by my improved arrangement of rolls and driers, the supply of my invention illus made in the Specific detai s herein described without departing from the boundaries of my invention as defined by the following claim. I claim as my inventiona A rubber spreading machine comprising a frame havin a raised part and a lower end extension; a abric supply roll mounted on the inner side of the raised art of the frame; a spreader roll andkm'fe supported on the outer side of the raised part; a heating coil coextensive with the frame, positioned within and adjacent to the bottom low the sprea of the frame; ide rollers mounted onebeer roll and the other on .the outside of thelow end extension, both of said guide rollers positioned in a plane above but adjacent to the heating coil In such manner that the fabric extends horizontally over and adjacent to the heating coil with its coated face directed downwardly toward the heatin coil; a windup roll mounted on the-inner si e of the low extension of the frame; and

driving means connecting the. spreading roll with a guide roll and driving means, connecting that guide roll with the take up roll.

In testimonywhereof I affix my signature.

EDWARD J. HOOPER. 

